Bury council has become arguably the first North West local authority to remove a ban on new housing applications following the publication of the latest planning guidance in the Regional Spatial Strategy.

A statement from the council said: "The new RSS has increased Bury's housing requirement figure from 230 dwellings per annum to 500 dwellings per annum.

"A new Supplementary Planning Document setting out the revised approach to housing land in Bury, entitled "Managing the Supply of Housing Land in Bury" (SPD7), is currently out for consultation. This document explains that the revised approach will now allow housing to come forward on a wider range of sites providing they are brownfield sites within the existing urban area, are suitable in land use terms, can be provided with infrastructure and would not conflict with other policies and proposals of the Bury Unitary Development Plan.

"This new approach will be monitored but it is intended that the revisions will enable an increased supply of housing land to come forward, capable of allowing the requirement of 500 dwellings per annum to be achieved."

The RSS nearly doubled the housing targets for the region from 12,000 units to more than 23,000 a year. Other councils are expected to follow suit.